Articles of Interest
Below are links to some informative and thought-provoking articles, podcasts, and webinars that we came across and thought families and students might enjoy.
- The Truth About College Admission podcast – Helps students and the adults who support them cut through the noise around searching for, applying to, and deciding on a college. In each episode, you can expect guests who are national experts working in the field of college admission and enrollment who will give you honest takes, helpful perspective, and in many cases some much needed levity and solace.
- College Became the Default – Thought-provoking article about the American education system by John McWhorter, opinion writer for the NY Times.
- ARROW: How College Decisions are Made – Video starts at 14 minutes in. Information on admission types, acceptance profiles, types of reviews, deadline types, personal and supplemental information, recommendations, demonstrated interest, etc.
- How to Calculate the ROI of your College Choice – Takes students through the steps of determining how much a college is going to cost. Article by Robert Farrington, Senior contributor to Forbes.
- Use these 6 points to say no to a college you and your kid can’t afford – Helps parents use their veto power to say no.
- Finding Colleges that are Affordable – Blog by college advisors Jennie Kent and Jeff Levy, about finding a college that is a financial fit.
- Trade Schools vs Traditional College What You Should Know – Robert Farrington, Senior Contributor at Forbes suggests that “it’s time to change the narrative, and for more reasons than one. Not only does trade school help students land a job faster, it also costs significantly less than traditional college. Plus, jobs in the trades are booming in general, whereas many other industries are over saturated with new graduates looking for work.”
- No Such Thing as a “Good” College – A reminder “that college rankings are subjective, and that their future success and happiness isn’t contingent on where they go to school.”
- There’s Only One College Ranking List That Matters – Frank Bruni, author of “Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be,” a book about college admissions, writes about the NY Times ranking tool which allows students to choose what is important to them in a college and provides an interactive interface. Link to the “Build Your Own Rankings” tool is in the article.
- Lord of the Rankings – A podcast by Malcom Gladwell (Revisionist History). “For 30 years, US News & World Report has been using a secret formula to rank the best colleges and universities in the United States. As a public service to our listeners, we hack the algorithm and discover the dirty little secret of the rankings game.”
- ‘Breaking Ranks’ With ‘U.S. News’ – Review by Scott Jaschik of the book, Breaking Ranks, How the Ranking Industry Rules Higher Education and What to Do About It.
- A ‘Fit’ over Rankings – White Paper on college admissions from Challenge Success, a non profit affiliated with Stanford Graduate School of Education. “This paper reviews and synthesizes key research in order to address many of the important questions and concerns we hear from students, parents, and schools about the college admissions process: What do college rankings really measure? Are students who attend more selective colleges better off later in life? What is “fit” and why does it matter?”
- The Misguided War on the SAT – “Colleges have fled standardized tests, on the theory that they hurt diversity. That’s not what the research shows.”